Sotheby's leads London's summer auctions
The works of modern and contemporary art sold by the three majors recorded a turnover of one hundred million pounds
3' min read
3' min read
The traditional summer auction sessions for modern and contemporary art in London were progressively reduced and in the last week of June, exactly on 24, there was only one evening auction at Sotheby's, followed by two sessions on the following day, while Christie's and Phillips decided to present catalogues with lower values on the afternoon of 26 June. Overall, turnover was around the £100m mark, with only Sotheby's achieving results above the £5m mark. The session brought dealers and collectors together after the long and tiring week of fairs in Basel and, in a shrinking market, hinged its success on collateral, which was present on practically all the million-plus lots.
Sotheby's Evening Auction
.The 48 lots remaining after four withdrawals prior to the Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction brought total proceeds of £62.4m, towards the low estimate after commissions were added, with seven unsold lots including a millionaire sculpture by Barbara Hepworth and a multiple work by Maurizio Cattelan. Twenty lots were secured, including four of the top five results, although only three lots would appear to have gone to their respective guarantors in the absence of further bids, which were in any case rather low, with only one-sixth of the works exceeding the high estimates before commissions were added, double that if commissions are taken into account.
A sustained bidding success pushed Marlow Moss's 1944 work to over £600,000, double its high estimate, a new record for a rationalist and constructivist work influenced by the relationship between the British artist and Mondrian in pre-war Paris. Different fates for Jenny Saville's two works in the catalogue: while her large 1994 oil-on-canvas back nude 'Juncture' fetched £5.4m above its low estimate with commissions alone, a large drawing of hers 'Mirror' from 2011-12 with two nude figures and references to classical painting was long fought over to £2.1m from a high estimate of £1.2m.
The series of female nudes, the real stars of the evening, continued with the languid and erotic painting that Tamara de Lempicka dedicated to her lover 'La Belle Rafaela' in 1927, which fetched just over the guaranteed estimate of 6 million with one bid in the room, for a total of £7.5 million with commissions.
And on the subject of nudes, there was no shortage of Picasso, in this case with a late 1965 painting of small dimensions which went for a total of £7.1m with commissions below its guaranteed estimate. By contrast, Basquiat's Indian skull on paper from 1981 attracted interest and raises, which exceeded its high estimate at £6.6m. The catalogue also included six guaranteed works by Lichtenstein from his estate, which brought a total of £6m.
